THE LAST COLONY VIVA INDEPENDENCE
By AFP
December 18, 2024
Officials warn of a death toll reaching hundreds, possibly even thousands
- Copyright AFP Andrej ISAKOVIC
Climate change intensified Cyclone Chido as it barrelled toward the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, said a preliminary study by scientists studying the link between global warming and tropical storms.
The assessment by Imperial College London also estimated that cyclones of Chido’s strength were 40 percent more likely in the warmer climate of 2024 compared to pre-industrial times.
Chido was the most damaging cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years when it made landfall Saturday, flattening tin-roof shacks in France’s poorest overseas territory.
Classified as a category four storm — the second highest on a five-point scale — Cyclone Chido crossed the small archipelago, where about one-third of the population live in makeshift housing.
The true scale of the disaster is still unknown but officials fear the death toll could eventually rise into the thousands.
Scientists at Imperial College London assessed what role global warming might have played in whipping up the wind speed and ferocity of tropical storms like Chido.
To overcome a scarcity of real-world data, they used an advanced computer model that runs millions of simulated tropical cyclones to infer what might be attributed to recent warming.
They concluded that wind speeds in the region near where Chido made landfall had increased by 3 miles per second compared to the climate before humanity began burning fossil fuels.
Climate change “uplifted the intensity of a tropical cyclone like ‘Chido’ from a Category 3 to Category 4”, the study said.
In the absence of conclusive studies, France’s weather service has stopped short of attributing Chido’s intensity to global warming, but says warmer oceans driven by human-caused climate change have made storms more violent.
Mayotte took the cyclone’s full force and Meteo-France said Chido’s impact was “above all the consequence of its trajectory” over the island.
The climate is nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the pre-industrial era, and scientists say this extra heat in the atmosphere and oceans is stoking more frequent and volatile weather events.
Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and warmer oceans cause greater evaporation, supercharging the conditions upon which tropical storms feed.
Climate change intensified Cyclone Chido as it barrelled toward the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, said a preliminary study by scientists studying the link between global warming and tropical storms.
The assessment by Imperial College London also estimated that cyclones of Chido’s strength were 40 percent more likely in the warmer climate of 2024 compared to pre-industrial times.
Chido was the most damaging cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years when it made landfall Saturday, flattening tin-roof shacks in France’s poorest overseas territory.
Classified as a category four storm — the second highest on a five-point scale — Cyclone Chido crossed the small archipelago, where about one-third of the population live in makeshift housing.
The true scale of the disaster is still unknown but officials fear the death toll could eventually rise into the thousands.
Scientists at Imperial College London assessed what role global warming might have played in whipping up the wind speed and ferocity of tropical storms like Chido.
To overcome a scarcity of real-world data, they used an advanced computer model that runs millions of simulated tropical cyclones to infer what might be attributed to recent warming.
They concluded that wind speeds in the region near where Chido made landfall had increased by 3 miles per second compared to the climate before humanity began burning fossil fuels.
Climate change “uplifted the intensity of a tropical cyclone like ‘Chido’ from a Category 3 to Category 4”, the study said.
In the absence of conclusive studies, France’s weather service has stopped short of attributing Chido’s intensity to global warming, but says warmer oceans driven by human-caused climate change have made storms more violent.
Mayotte took the cyclone’s full force and Meteo-France said Chido’s impact was “above all the consequence of its trajectory” over the island.
The climate is nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the pre-industrial era, and scientists say this extra heat in the atmosphere and oceans is stoking more frequent and volatile weather events.
Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and warmer oceans cause greater evaporation, supercharging the conditions upon which tropical storms feed.
Devastated Mayotte battles to recover from cyclone ‘steamroller’
By AFP
December 18, 2024
The cyclone left scenes of utter devastation - Copyright AFP DIMITAR DILKOFF
Thibault Marchand
The district of La Vigie on the French overseas territory of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life. Now it no longer exists.
All that remains after Cyclone Chido rammed into Mayotte at the weekend, leaving devastation unprecedented in the last century in its wake, are ravaged hills, piles of tangled sheet metal and wood, and a few bare tree trunks.
“It was like a steamroller that crushed everything,” said Nasrine, a teacher who did not give her last name, as she showed people around her now transformed neighbourhood.
Climbing up the hill clutching an umbrella to protect her from the sun, the young woman stopped in horror.
“We’re not supposed to see the sea from here — before, the vegetation covered the whole view,” she said.
Nasrine lived in one of the few concrete buildings in the district around Pamandzi, a town close to Mayotte’s main airport on the island of Petite Terre, just east of the main island of the Mayotte archipelago.
Her house survived the cyclone. But a little further on, Touharati Ali Moudou lost everything.
“The wind knocked down the house,” said the mother in her 30s, who recently arrived from the Comoros to the north from where many immigrants head to Mayotte in search of a better life.
Before the cyclone hit, she had been told that she could find shelter in a nearby gymnasium but, she said, “there were a lot of people, and my father is very old”.
So they stayed home.
In the end, they were lucky: only two people were injured among her family and nearby neighbours, including a man whose head was slashed by a piece of metal blown by the wind.
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– Community spirit –
Everyone, from Mayotte locals to officials far away in Paris, knows that the official toll of 22 dead risks rising exponentially.
“What I fear is that the toll will be far too high,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who visited Mayotte on Monday, told BFMTV, describing the damage as “colossal”.
Communication is almost non-existent. Nobody has television anymore. The mobile network and internet are at best patchy, at worst non-existent. Only the radio can sometimes give snippets of information.
With much of the population living in shanty towns in informal dwellings protected only by sheet metal roofs, Chido encountered few obstacles.
But a ray of hope comes from the sense of community as people team up to clear the area and return to a semblance of normal life.
In three days, the landscape of desolation has already changed.
“It looks good compared to Saturday,” Nasrine said.
Residents of the neighbourhood worked to clear the roads and remove most of the electrical cables on the ground, defying the authorities’ instructions for caution, she said.
The assistant principal of a middle school in Pamandzi, Morgane Renard, inspected the damage.
The shock caused by Chido was clear in her voice, which choked when talking about the cyclone: the first gust of wind, the slight lull and then the second “colossal” gust of wind.
“Even those who thought they were safe did not imagine to what extent the violence of the wind could devastate everything,” she said, acknowledging she was one of the lucky ones.
Apart from two trees that fell on her family house, it is intact.
“Sharing is the key word at the moment,” said Nasrine.
In the street, neighbours meet to cook with wood on makeshift equipment. Abeta, a 17-year-old boy, improvised a system with a water bottle cut in half to collect water drop by drop from a leaking pipe.
By AFP
December 18, 2024
The cyclone left scenes of utter devastation - Copyright AFP DIMITAR DILKOFF
Thibault Marchand
The district of La Vigie on the French overseas territory of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life. Now it no longer exists.
All that remains after Cyclone Chido rammed into Mayotte at the weekend, leaving devastation unprecedented in the last century in its wake, are ravaged hills, piles of tangled sheet metal and wood, and a few bare tree trunks.
“It was like a steamroller that crushed everything,” said Nasrine, a teacher who did not give her last name, as she showed people around her now transformed neighbourhood.
Climbing up the hill clutching an umbrella to protect her from the sun, the young woman stopped in horror.
“We’re not supposed to see the sea from here — before, the vegetation covered the whole view,” she said.
Nasrine lived in one of the few concrete buildings in the district around Pamandzi, a town close to Mayotte’s main airport on the island of Petite Terre, just east of the main island of the Mayotte archipelago.
Her house survived the cyclone. But a little further on, Touharati Ali Moudou lost everything.
“The wind knocked down the house,” said the mother in her 30s, who recently arrived from the Comoros to the north from where many immigrants head to Mayotte in search of a better life.
Before the cyclone hit, she had been told that she could find shelter in a nearby gymnasium but, she said, “there were a lot of people, and my father is very old”.
So they stayed home.
In the end, they were lucky: only two people were injured among her family and nearby neighbours, including a man whose head was slashed by a piece of metal blown by the wind.
.gif)
– Community spirit –
Everyone, from Mayotte locals to officials far away in Paris, knows that the official toll of 22 dead risks rising exponentially.
“What I fear is that the toll will be far too high,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who visited Mayotte on Monday, told BFMTV, describing the damage as “colossal”.
Communication is almost non-existent. Nobody has television anymore. The mobile network and internet are at best patchy, at worst non-existent. Only the radio can sometimes give snippets of information.
With much of the population living in shanty towns in informal dwellings protected only by sheet metal roofs, Chido encountered few obstacles.
But a ray of hope comes from the sense of community as people team up to clear the area and return to a semblance of normal life.
In three days, the landscape of desolation has already changed.
“It looks good compared to Saturday,” Nasrine said.
Residents of the neighbourhood worked to clear the roads and remove most of the electrical cables on the ground, defying the authorities’ instructions for caution, she said.
The assistant principal of a middle school in Pamandzi, Morgane Renard, inspected the damage.
The shock caused by Chido was clear in her voice, which choked when talking about the cyclone: the first gust of wind, the slight lull and then the second “colossal” gust of wind.
“Even those who thought they were safe did not imagine to what extent the violence of the wind could devastate everything,” she said, acknowledging she was one of the lucky ones.
Apart from two trees that fell on her family house, it is intact.
“Sharing is the key word at the moment,” said Nasrine.
In the street, neighbours meet to cook with wood on makeshift equipment. Abeta, a 17-year-old boy, improvised a system with a water bottle cut in half to collect water drop by drop from a leaking pipe.
– Reconstruction –
Touharati Ali Moudou showed a pile of mattresses, blankets and a few belongings saved from the disaster. She has already put men to work to create a new dwelling and on a roughly flat piece of land posts have already been raised.
The sheet metal will soon be back, first for the roof: she will get a home for herself, her three children and the nieces and nephews who she sometimes looks after.
All over Mayotte, informal settlements that house an estimated 100,000 of the 300,000 officially registered inhabitants have been destroyed.
Reconstruction will be daunting. According to Retailleau, only 10 percent of Mayotte’s inhabitants had insurance.
Kaweni, the largest shantytown in France, on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou on Mayotte’s main island, is one of the most affected.
The sound of hammers hitting sheet metal reverberates across the neighbourhood as locals rush to rebuild homes before the rainy season arrives.
“It’s the new sound of Mamoudzou,” said a law student who came to the capital where the network is more stable to recharge his phone and give news to his parents who “thought he was dead”.
Heartbreaking Aftermath Of Cyclone Chido In Mayotte
Story by Hannah Hodgetts • 18/12/2024
Boinali Dhakioine
The aftermath of Cyclone Chido has left the communities of Mayotte devasted.
Cyclone Chido hit the region of Mayotte, France, on December 14th and is claimed to be one of the worst storms to hit the island in over 90 years.
Boinali Dhakioine, from Mamoudzou, Mayotte, France, captured heartbreaking footage of the effects of the cyclone on the island in the Indian Ocean.
Boinali Dhakioine
Many towns and homes were left destroyed as collapsed roofs, fallen trees and abandoned cars can be seen blocking the streets.
Mayotte was hit with torrential rainfall, wave heights over 5 meters and winds reaching up to 200 km per hour.
The natural disaster resulted in communities cut off from electricity and water and many roads, internet and phone networks still down.
Boinali Dhakioine
The cyclone continued to cause heartbreak to nearby islands of Comoros, Madagascar and Mozambique where the death toll is rising.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared national mourning and claimed to support residents and emergency services involved in the emergency and relief operation.
President Macron claimed to visit the French Indian Ocean territory in support of rescue teams who are struggling to clean up one of the biggest storms to hit the region in nearly a century.
Related video: France: Cyclone Chido Batters Mayotte, Leaving Significant Damage 4 (StringersHub)
France imposes curfew for cyclone-hit Mayotte as toll rises
By AFP
December 17, 2024
According to the latest official toll, 22 people are confirmed to have been killed in Mayotte by Cyclone Chido - Copyright Securite Civile/AFP Handout
Authorities announced a nighttime curfew Tuesday to curb looting after a devastating cyclone hit the French overseas territory of Mayotte, with the country’s prime minister warning the death toll could rise.
According to the latest toll from the interior ministry, 22 people are confirmed to have been killed and 1,373 injured by Cyclone Chido when it barrelled into the archipelago at the weekend.
But authorities fear that hundreds, and possibly even thousands, will be confirmed dead once the true scale of the toll is revealed after the rubble is cleared and roads are unblocked.
Cyclone Chido was the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change, with the exceptional system being super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, according to experts.
Rescuers were searching for survivors in the wreckage and said they expected to find numerous victims in the ruins of slums such as ones in the capital Mamoudzou.
In a sign of the potential magnitude of the tragedy, the Red Cross said it feared more than 200 of its volunteers were missing on Mayotte.
“The toll is, as of today, at more than 20 dead, 200 badly wounded and 1,500 wounded in a relative state of urgency,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told parliament.
“This toll could rise. We all know this,” he added.
– ‘Completely devastated’ –
The health services are in tatters while power and mobile phone services have been knocked out.
The airport is closed to civilian flights and there is mounting concern over how to ensure supplies of drinking water.
Bayrou said progress was being made with about 50 percent of the electricity network restarted, with a target of 75 percent “by the end of the week”.
The main hospital has recovered around half of its activity, and “about 80 percent of the road network is accessible again”, he added.
The curfew from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am (1900 GMT to 0100 GMT) is being put in place as a security measure to prevent looting, the French interior ministry said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who chaired a crisis meeting on Monday night, has described the situation as a “tragedy”.
Late Tuesday, Macron said he would visit territory on Thursday, cutting short a trip to Brussels to meet European Union leaders.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who on Monday visited the island, said that Mayotte has been “completely devastated”, with 70 percent of inhabitants affected.
– ‘Until last minute’ –
Mayotte is France’s poorest region, with an estimated one-third of the population living in shantytowns whose flimsy sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection against the storm.
“We’re starting to run out of water. In the south, there’s been no running water for five days,” said Antoy Abdallah, a resident of Tsoundzou in the territory’s capital Mamoudzou.
“We’re completely cut off from the world,” the 34-year-old lamented.
Most of Mayotte’s population is Muslim and religious tradition dictates that bodies must be buried rapidly, meaning some may never be counted.
Assessing the toll is further complicated by irregular immigration to Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, meaning much of the population is not even registered.
Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants but authorities estimate there could be 100,000 to 200,000 more people, taking into account illegal immigration.
After hitting Mayotte, Cyclone Chido made landfall in Mozambique, claiming at least 34 lives and destroying 23,600 homes, authorities said.
– Prime minister criticised –
Mayotte is one of several French overseas territories ruled from Paris.
French military planes have been shuttling between Mayotte and the island of La Reunion, also a French overseas territory, to the east which was spared the cyclone and is serving as the hub for rescue efforts.
The first air evacuation of 25 badly wounded people from Mayotte to La Reunion took place on Monday night, Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said.
The disaster poses a major challenge for a government only operating in a caretaker capacity, days after Macron appointed the sixth prime minister of his presidency.
Bayrou faced tough criticism less than a week into the job after choosing to chair a provincial town hall meeting in his capacity as mayor of Pau instead of attending Macron’s crisis meeting in person.
French National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron’s centrist party, said that “instead of taking a plane for Pau” Bayrou should have “taken a plane for Mamoudzou” instead.
By AFP
December 17, 2024
According to the latest official toll, 22 people are confirmed to have been killed in Mayotte by Cyclone Chido - Copyright Securite Civile/AFP Handout
Authorities announced a nighttime curfew Tuesday to curb looting after a devastating cyclone hit the French overseas territory of Mayotte, with the country’s prime minister warning the death toll could rise.
According to the latest toll from the interior ministry, 22 people are confirmed to have been killed and 1,373 injured by Cyclone Chido when it barrelled into the archipelago at the weekend.
But authorities fear that hundreds, and possibly even thousands, will be confirmed dead once the true scale of the toll is revealed after the rubble is cleared and roads are unblocked.
Cyclone Chido was the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change, with the exceptional system being super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, according to experts.
Rescuers were searching for survivors in the wreckage and said they expected to find numerous victims in the ruins of slums such as ones in the capital Mamoudzou.
In a sign of the potential magnitude of the tragedy, the Red Cross said it feared more than 200 of its volunteers were missing on Mayotte.
“The toll is, as of today, at more than 20 dead, 200 badly wounded and 1,500 wounded in a relative state of urgency,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told parliament.
“This toll could rise. We all know this,” he added.
– ‘Completely devastated’ –
The health services are in tatters while power and mobile phone services have been knocked out.
The airport is closed to civilian flights and there is mounting concern over how to ensure supplies of drinking water.
Bayrou said progress was being made with about 50 percent of the electricity network restarted, with a target of 75 percent “by the end of the week”.
The main hospital has recovered around half of its activity, and “about 80 percent of the road network is accessible again”, he added.
The curfew from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am (1900 GMT to 0100 GMT) is being put in place as a security measure to prevent looting, the French interior ministry said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who chaired a crisis meeting on Monday night, has described the situation as a “tragedy”.
Late Tuesday, Macron said he would visit territory on Thursday, cutting short a trip to Brussels to meet European Union leaders.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who on Monday visited the island, said that Mayotte has been “completely devastated”, with 70 percent of inhabitants affected.
– ‘Until last minute’ –
Mayotte is France’s poorest region, with an estimated one-third of the population living in shantytowns whose flimsy sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection against the storm.
“We’re starting to run out of water. In the south, there’s been no running water for five days,” said Antoy Abdallah, a resident of Tsoundzou in the territory’s capital Mamoudzou.
“We’re completely cut off from the world,” the 34-year-old lamented.
Most of Mayotte’s population is Muslim and religious tradition dictates that bodies must be buried rapidly, meaning some may never be counted.
Assessing the toll is further complicated by irregular immigration to Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, meaning much of the population is not even registered.
Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants but authorities estimate there could be 100,000 to 200,000 more people, taking into account illegal immigration.
After hitting Mayotte, Cyclone Chido made landfall in Mozambique, claiming at least 34 lives and destroying 23,600 homes, authorities said.
– Prime minister criticised –
Mayotte is one of several French overseas territories ruled from Paris.
French military planes have been shuttling between Mayotte and the island of La Reunion, also a French overseas territory, to the east which was spared the cyclone and is serving as the hub for rescue efforts.
The first air evacuation of 25 badly wounded people from Mayotte to La Reunion took place on Monday night, Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said.
The disaster poses a major challenge for a government only operating in a caretaker capacity, days after Macron appointed the sixth prime minister of his presidency.
Bayrou faced tough criticism less than a week into the job after choosing to chair a provincial town hall meeting in his capacity as mayor of Pau instead of attending Macron’s crisis meeting in person.
French National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron’s centrist party, said that “instead of taking a plane for Pau” Bayrou should have “taken a plane for Mamoudzou” instead.
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